NAND Suppliers See Revenue Surge as AI SSD Demand Lifts Pricing

The NAND market entered 2026 with a stronger pricing backdrop than expected. EE Times Asia, citing TrendForce, reported that the five largest NAND Flash suppliers grew combined first-quarter revenue to more than $38.9 billion, an 83.7% sequential increase. The demand driver is concentrated in data-center storage. Cloud providers are buying enterprise SSDs for AI server deployments, while limited HDD availability is pushing some storage orders toward QLC enterprise SSDs. That mix gives NAND suppliers room to keep average prices elevated even as higher memory costs pressure smartphones and PCs. Samsung remained the largest supplier, helped by server-related bit shipments and stronger contract pricing. SK hynix and Solidigm benefited from high-capacity QLC enterprise SSD demand, while Kioxia also saw a steep quarterly revenue increase. The broader signal is clear: server storage is absorbing enough supply to keep the NAND cycle tight into the second quarter.